She Died Nearly 100 Years Ago. So Why Does She Still Open Her Eyes In Her Coffin?

You have to see it to believe it.

Rosalia Lombardo died in 1920, but little else is known about the little girl that many call "Sleeping Beauty."

What is known is that Rosalia is one of the world's best preserved mummies. The preservation is the work of a Sicilian embalmer named Alfredo Salafia, whose embalming solution left her body almost completely intact.

What is particularly eerie about the body, however, is that many believe that little Rosalia opens and closes her eyes, even as she rests in her casket.

This is a time-lapse series of photos, taken over two hours.

One man says there's an explanation.

Dario Piombino-Mascali, curator of the Capuchin Catacombs in Sicily which house Rosalia's glass casket, claims the phenomenon is "an optical illusion produced by the light that filters through the side windows, which during the day is subject to change" and that her eyes are "not completely closed, and indeed they have never been."